With more and more YouTubers speaking up about their mental health, we should start seeing them as people; not just faces on a screen for our entertainment. Catherine Shuttleworth investigates the crazy life of being a YouTuber.
Since its launch in 2005, YouTube has developed from a platform where people would share fun home-made videos to a place where creating content can turn you into an internet celebrity.
When children are asked what they want to be when they’re older ‘YouTuber’ is often the most popular answer. While making and posting entertaining videos for millions of people to watch (and getting paid for it) might sound like an amazing career, there’s a darker side to YouTube fame which has recently emerged. On some of the biggest YouTube channels, you’ll see videos with titles like ‘Why I’ve Been Gone’.
It’s clear that the overwhelming pressures of being a YouTuber can have a negative impact on creators’ mental health, and they can feel as if they owe their audience an explanation as to why they sometimes need to pull away. As it’s such a new career path there is no guidance, or help, on being a YouTuber. So when all of a sudden your channel has blown up and you’re attracting a larger audience (some of whom are highly critical) it’s no surprise that creators can pull away from the platform.
The stress of consistently uploading high quality content can build up and become overwhelming. We need to start a conversation around being an influencer and providing the right support for those in the spotlight. I spoke to Jade Bowler, known online as UnJaded Jade, and asked her what it’s like being a YouTuber.
I wanted to see just how much of an affect the online world has had on her mental wellbeing:
Do you feel pressure to post videos constantly on a regular schedule?
“I think I definitely put pressure on myself to maintain a certain consistency with my content. I’m quite hard on myself with self-set deadlines, but it depends what else is happening in my life! For example, when I went backpacking my priority was being present and switching off so I posted less frequently than usual.”
If a video performs poorly does this affect your mood?
“It depends on the definition of ‘performs poorly’! Views are a more obvious factor, but I also really try and aim for value. If I’ve posted a video on a more niche topic the views might be lower but comments about how it’s helped people are just as rewarding. Sometimes it’s a little disheartening when you spend days editing a video and thumbnail, on something you’re passionate about and people just aren’t as interested.”
What’s it like having a fan base, do you feel a constant need to update them with what’s happening in your life? Do you feel like you owe something back to those who watch and support you?
“It’s so strange having a fanbase! At the end of the day, I’m just a normal person living my life. Sometimes there is this pressure that, seeing as I’ve decided to take people along on the journey, I owe it to them to update them. But equally I’m such a fan of living in the moment, so I’m very content to get off my phone and just enjoy events without sharing. I guess in some ways, I do feel like I owe something back. It’s this strange dynamic of having people you don’t know genuinely interested in your life choices. Receiving so much consistent support means that during meaningful periods like Results Day, I really feel like I owe people advice or at least a good luck message. My audience do feel like friends!”
Does having to make videos consistently, and put your life out there, lead you to be exhausted both mentally and physically?
“Sometimes, it can be difficult when there’s already a lot going on in my life and then there’s the added pressure of having to share it. I make sure to look after myself mentally with mindful activities like meditation and yoga.”
How does it feel when you receive hate comments/dislikes, does this also affect your mood and your view of yourself?
“I mean, it’s not nice. At the end of the day you’re signing yourself up to letting random people have an opinion of you, which will never be wholly positive. Most of the time hate comments don’t really affect me as I understand they can hide behind their anonymity and don’t know me in person. However, when I’m already feeling low and I click onto an app and see some well-worded negative comment it really can affect me. I do wish I cared just a little less what people think of me.”
How do you cope with having most of your life online for everyone to see? Do you have certain hobbies/activities that you do where you can just focus on yourself and forget about YouTube?
“I definitely need coping mechanisms – I’m obsessed with yoga, meditation and jogging. It’s so important to keep up mindful practices to look after your mental health; whether you’re a YouTuber or not! I love running to clear my head, to forget a hate comment that affected me and just generally switch off.”
Do you worry that having your history on the internet for everyone to see will affect you in the future?
“I have considered it. It’s scary that future employers can grasp so much of my personality from my online presence, although I’m very much myself online. I’m so proud of the way in which I’ve used my platform that, to the right employer, I think it’ll be a bonus as opposed to a drawback. Understanding social media, branding, editing etc. are all useful! I’m also very conscious of what I share online.”
Do you think YouTube has a more positive or negative impact on your mental health?
“YouTube has simultaneously been the best and worst thing for my mental health. If anything, it’s forced me to learn a lot about how I deal with pressure, my opinion of myself and dependency on external validation, all at such a young age. I therefore think I’ve formed a stronger personal identity and self-belief.”
Jade’s answers give a clear perspective into her life and show that the key to not only this job, but life in general, is balance. Her mature take on negative reactions to her videos/posts is one I believe everyone should adopt. It is clear that being a YouTuber can affect one’s mental health; both positively and negatively.
The way to reduce the negatives is by developing healthy coping mechanisms and letting go of the hate comments. A big part of YouTube is cancel culture. This is the idea that when an influencer makes a mistake and messes up, they are ‘cancelled’ and are given no chance to redeem themselves.
While it is important that we challenge internet celebrities on the harmful products they promote or the way they interact with their fellow influencers, a surge of hate is often never the way to get them to change. People aren’t going to respond well to messages which attack them for everything, so instead we need to be more constructive in our criticism, explaining where they went wrong instead of just telling them they should delete their channel.
YouTubers getting into scandals and being ‘cancelled’ is happening more and more frequently, with the scandals sometimes getting so big that even mainstream media gets involved. Logan Paul’s suicide forest video was one of the biggest incidents to ever happen on YouTube.
Publications including The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, The Guardian and The Japan Times covered the incident. Social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter were dominated by hashtag’s like #loganpaulisoverparty. And while he did deserve backlash for what he did, no one ever thought about the effect having millions of people telling you that you are a horrible person would have on him.
The same goes for the scandal involving James Charles and fellow YouTuber Tati Westbrook. Tati made a video about James’ alleged inappropriate behaviour and the entire internet seemed to turn against him, with people destroying his makeup palettes and merchandise as a way of showing their anger and disgust towards him. He lost 2 million subscribers in 48 hours.
Even fake accusations were made against him, just because it was ‘on trend’ to bash him and people wanted to jump on the bandwagon. In the end, it appears that the merciless hate directed towards influencers is almost pointless. Cancel culture only ever seems to bring about short-term effects, like a huge uproar on social media and a temporary blip in the person’s career.
But in the long term, their careers return to normal and the internet finds a new person to slander. However, whilst their channels resume creating content like nothing has happened, that does not mean their mental state does. After his feud with Tati Westbrook, James Charles uploaded a video titled ‘No More Lies’ where he shared his side of the story, while also saying that the result of the drama led to “the most painful time [in James’ life].”
He also said ‘‘People think being a social media influencer is an easy job… but I don’t think any human being ever is prepared to deal with the pain and anxiety of what it feels like for millions of people to be talking to you at one time.”
So why do influencers seem to be under more fire, more often, than mainstream celebrities? Well, influencers can appear more like friends to viewers, they don’t seem as out of reach as TV/film/music stars. People still see influencers as ordinary people just like themselves regardless of their status/following and therefore it is easier to cancel influencers/YouTubers because they don’t seem like celebrities – it feels like much less hard work to end an influencers career than it does a singer/actor/comedian. So, what can we do to support YouTubers?
Well the easiest and most important thing we, as viewers, can do is to remind ourselves that they are people too; not just YouTubers. This means we need to respect their decisions to take breaks from YouTube, stop getting annoyed if they aren’t constantly uploading and stop trying to uncover their personal lives. It’s up to them what they do and do not share with the internet, and it is only common decency to respect that. Next time there is another big scandal, instead of instantly jumping on the hate train take a step back and read into what is going on.
Try and put yourself in their shoes and ask yourself: do they really need another person to send them a hateful tweet? Does more awareness need to be made so they can right their wrong? See what the person under attack has to say, what’s their side of the story? Don’t just excuse them from their actions because everyone is hating on them, and if you believe more people need to speak up against them then do it, but make sure the criticism is constructive. As for YouTube, are they doing enough to support their creators?
Making money off YouTube is becoming more and more stressful as the amount of guidelines you must follow in order for a video to get monetised is growing by the day, and if a creator is struggling to make money, this can put a lot of stress and strain on them. YouTubers’ are constantly tweeting YouTube trying to get their attention Jade Bowler, UnJaded Jade when their video hasn’t been monetised or claiming their videos are being taken down for unjust reasons.
The response usually takes a month or so, if someone is relying on YouTube for their income waiting a month or more can lead to increased stress levels and possibly a lack of motivation to keep making videos. Some responses are generic copy and pastes.
When I was scrolling through the @TeamYouTube’s Twitter I kept seeing the exact same word for word response for most queries; how helpful can that be? Clearly, being a YouTuber is an individual experience for each creator.
If viewers take a more mature approach to criticising YouTubers when they make mistakes, we can start to reduce the amount of hate on the platform.